Record Truck Accident Settlement
Our clients, a young mother and her two year old son, residing in London, returned to New York for a weekend family celebration. It was July 4, 2008 at 1:00 in the morning when our clients were picked up at the airport and seated in the rear of a car. On the way to the city, the vehicle was rear ended by a tractor trailer. The child sustained a spinal cord injury and his mother, sustained multiple fractures.
Top Team of Experts
Stuart Finz, the senior partner and trial lawyer at the firm, was contacted by the family one month after the accident and immediately started to assemble a top team of experts. The case was placed into suit in the United States Federal Court in New York within days of being retained.
Trucking Company Defenses
The trucking company hired two major defense firms that advanced a defense that the truck driver was cut off just prior to the accident, and that therefore the accident was unavoidable. In addition, the defense alleged that since the child was not in a car seat and the mother was not seat belted, any damages sustained by them would have to be substantially reduced.
Mr. Finz confronted these defenses head on with his accident reconstruction, bio-mechanical, seat belt, trucking, and medical experts. After over 40 depositions (many of which were all day video shoots), massive discovery demands, and responses, the case which was trial ready (after long and complicated conferences), was settled.
The Settlement
The record settlement for the child was in the sum of $21,000,000.00, and the settlement for his mother was in the sum of $3,325,000.00. The driver of the car and her husband received $175,000.00 for a total case settlement of $24,500,000.00. The settlement of $21,000,000.00 on behalf of the child is the largest recorded individual personal injury truck accident settlement in New York State history. The settlement will provide top medical treatment for the child, and financial security to the family for life.
